The monetary union has been seen as boosting financial market integration by reducing costs, eliminating exchange rate risks and raising price transparency. The full potential of gains from monetary union will only be realised, however, if remaining barriers to integration are dismantled and competitive conditions in EU financial markets are ensured. Since the early 1970s the European Commission has pushed for the creation of a European financial area, and important progress has been made, as discussed in some detail below. Rather than establishing uniform regulation and supervision for a single financial market, the principles of home country control, harmonisation of essential principles and mutual recognition were applied, assuming that mutual recognition and market forces would interact to yield convergence in the regulatory environment. Accompanied by the global trend of financial market liberalisation, this sparked competition between financial centres, which had developed within their distinct national financial systems, changing the structure of financial markets over time. Competition between financial centres has intensified significantly with the introduction of the euro in 1999. Nonetheless, liberalisation has not yet gone far enough and deep integration of financial markets is still far from being a reality in several market segments.